What is Outlook Web Access (OWA)?

Outlook Web Access is a service of Exchange Server that enables users to access their Exchange Server mailboxes through a Web browser. By using Outlook Web Access, a server that is running Exchange Server can also function as a Web site that enables authorized users to read or send e-mail messages, manage their calendar, or perform other e-mail functions over the Internet. With Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, you can use a Web browser to access your Microsoft Exchange mailbox from any computer with an Internet connection. In fact, you can do many of the same things you can do with Microsoft Outlook, such as read and send messages, organize contacts, create tasks and rules, schedule appointments, and access public folders. To use the complete set of features available with Outlook Web Access, use Internet Explorer 6 or later.

Please Note: You can use Outlook Web Access with Microsoft Internet Explorer or any other Browser under any Operation System, however you will not be able to use the complete set of features available to you as you would if you were using Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher on a Microsoft Windows-based environment.

Your Business Exchange Professional account includes Outlook Web Access, which enables you to check your email from any computer connected to the Internet. This service is also a great alternative for Users who do not have Outlook software installed on their computer.

Outlook Web Access Browser Comparability

You should use the latest version of Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher to access Outlook Web Access. Other browsers like Firefox and Opera will work, but only with limited features.

OWA performance over a HTTPS connection

In Internet Explorer, there is a default setting which disables caching of files and pages which are displayed over a secure connection. By changing this option, you can reduce the delay it may take to display the OWA over a secure (HTTPS) connection. You can follow these steps to enable caching:

In Internet Explorer, from the Tools menu select Internet Options...

Select the Advanced tab.

In the Settings area, scroll down to the Security section and deselect the Do not save encrypted pages to disk option.

Click OK.

Custom signatures in the OWA

To append a custom signature to each message you send, please follow the instructions provided below:

In the Navigation Pane, click Options.

Under Messaging Options, click Edit Signature.

In the Signature window, type and format the signature you want to use, and then click Save and Close.

Select the Automatically include my signature on outgoing messages check box, and then click Save and Close.

Recover deleted items in Outlook Web Access

Although an item is permanently deleted once it is deleted from you Deleted Items folder, you can recover a deleted item if it was deleted in error. To recover deleted items, please follow the instructions provided below:

In the Navigation pane, click Options.

In the Deleted Items section under Recover Deleted Items you will see a list of emails which can be recovered.

Select the item you want to recover. Hold down CTRL or SHIFT to select multiple items.

To return the selected items to your Deleted Items folder, click Recover to Deleted Items Folder on the toolbar, or click Permanently Delete to permanently destroy the items.

Please Note: Deleted items are recoverable only for a limited time -- generally within a 1 day period. If the item you want to recover isn't there, it's likely that the recovery time has expired for that item.

Spell Check

Business Exchange accounts can use Spell Check in the OWA interface to check spelling for the any of the following languages:

Arabic

Catalan

Danish

Dutch

English (Australia, Canada, UK, USA)

Finnish

French (France)

German (post-reform, pre-reform)

Hebrew

Italian

Korean

Norwegian (Bokml, Nynorsk)

Portugese (Portugal, Brasil)

Spanish

Swedish

Outlook Web Access calendar

Outlook Web Access Calendar allows you to create and track appointments. To open your calendar, click Calendar in the Navigation Pane. In addition to the daily, weekly, and monthly views, you can display up to seven days of your choice in one view.

If you are a Business Exchange service subscriber, you can additionally use your calendar to organize and schedule meetings with your co-workers, and then update or modify the information (time, location, or attendees) as required. When you use Calendar to keep track of your meetings and appointments, co-workers can check your availability for their own scheduling purposes. Additionally, if you are a Business Exchange service subscriber, you can set all appointments and meetings as recurring events, meaning they will occur on a regular basis. For example, you will have the ability to schedule a recurring status meeting that takes place every Wednesday at 2:00 P.M.

Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1

With the release of Exchange 2007, the following features have been restored or added to Outlook Web Access:

Personal Distribution Lists

Digital Encryption and Digital Signing (S/MIME)

Rules

Monthly Calendar View

Recovery of Deleted Items

Public Folder Access

Spell Check for Arabic and Korean

Viewing Office 2007 file formats as HTML

Delegate Management

The mail2web.com Business Exchange service is currently running Exchange 2007 with SP1 and all of the above features are available.

Critical Error when sending email

This problem may occur if you have installed Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 and have previously installed the OWA S/MIME control for digitally encrypting or signing email. You can determine if the control is installed on your computer by logging into the OWA (at https://ex7.mail2web.com), clicking on Options in the bottom-left corner of the Navigation Pane, and then scroll down to the E-mail Security section. If the encryption options are available to you, then the control has been installed.

To correct this issue, you can uninstall the control from your PC and install the new version by following these steps.

From the Start menu, select Control Panel and then Add or Remove Programs.

Locate Microsoft Outlook Web Access S/MIME.

Uninstall it. You may need to restart your PC for changes to take effect.

Next, log back into the OWA and proceed to the Options page. Re-install the latest version of the S/MIME Control from the E-mail Security section.

Additional help for Outlook Web Access

For more information on how to use the Outlook Web Access interface and it's many features, we recommend clicking on the Help button located in the top-right corner of the OWA interface. The help document contains many articles with instructions and information on using Outlook Web Access.